The data came to light just a few days ago during a press conference by Vadym Gutzeit, president of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine. To find such a low number in a Ukrainian delegation of this nature, one must go back to the Tokyo 2020 Games, when the delegation consisted of about fifteen more athletes.

“To date, we have concluded the selection process with 124 licenses. These belong to the 140 involved who will compete in 23 events of the scheduled programme for the Paris event,” noted Gutzeit, who had already made it clear a month ago that most Ukrainian athletes are completing their pre-Olympic preparation outside the country due to the danger posed by the Russian invasion.

All of them are finalising their training for the Paris Olympic Games, but always under special security conditions, given the extreme demands of the war. According to the Ukrainian Olympic Committee, more than 400 professional athletes have died in combat since February 2022, while many others have suspended their careers to join the Army.

Russian athletes, as well as athletes from Belarus, will be at the Paris Olympic Games only as neutral individual participants and with numerous restrictions, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) reported in March. There will be only a few dozen of these athletes, and they will not even be present at the opening ceremony of the games on 26th July. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian community in France plans to boycott this matter, revealed Volodymyr Kogutyak, vice-president of the Ukrainian World Congress for Western Europe.

Ukraine will base its participation on individual excellence, with the only team sport they will compete in being football. It should be noted that this is the first time the national football team has participated in the Olympics since the country gained independence. The committee president also announced some other new developments: Ukrainians will be represented in breaking and climbing, something unprecedented until now, and athletics will be the discipline with the highest number of athletes, a total of 25.

The composition of the Ukrainian delegation in Paris is as follows:

Athletics: 25
Football: 8
Diving: 9
Rowing (kayaking and canoeing, slalom rowing): 9
Wrestling (freestyle and Greco-Roman): 9
Rhythmic gymnastics: 6
Academic rowing: 6
Sports gymnastics: 6
Tennis: 6
Shooting (ball and bench): 6
Fencing: 6
Swimming: 5
Judo: 5
Cycling (highway + mountain bike): 4
Boxing: 3
Breaking: 3
Modern pentathlon: 3
Table tennis: 3
Rock climbing: 2
Artistic swimming: 2
Archery: 2
Badminton: 1
Weightlifting: 1